Timothy mullins



(No Model.)

T. MULLINS.

.SHOEMAKEBYS BENCH.

Patented May 22,1883.

v Imam-601" 7W my improvement.

UNITED STATES PATENT ()FFICE.

HIMSELF AND GEORGE A.

WALES, OF 'SAME PLACE.

SHOE-MAKERS BENCH.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 278,254, dated May 22, 1883.

(No model.)

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, TIMOTHY MULLINS, of Stoughton, in the county of Norfolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain Im-v provements in Shoe-Makers Bench Attachments or Laps, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to the bench attachments used by shoe-makers for supporting a boot or shoe with the last therein bottom upward While the workman is putting on the outer sole, trimming the edge thereof, or performingother operations by hand on the bottom of the boot or shoe. This attachment, which is'usually termed a lap, and sometimes a knee, is composed of two parallel pieces of wood secured together at one end and separated by a space or slot wide enough to receive the leg and narrower portion of the upper of a boot or shoe, but narrower than the sole and the wider portion of the upper immediatelyabovethesole. Heretoforethesepieces have been fixed or non-adjustable with relation to each other, so that to adapt an attachment constructed to be used for mens sizes for smaller work the proximate sides of the side pieces have had to be padded to make the opening between said pieces sufficiently narrow.

My invention consists in making one of said side pieces adjustable with relation to the other, and in providing means for positively holding said adjustable piece in any position to which it may be adjusted, thereby enabling the device to be conveniently adapted to diflerent sizes of boots and shoes, as I will now proceed to describe.

Of the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, Figure 1 represents a side elevation of an attachment embodying Fig. 2 represents a top viewof the same. Fig. 3 represents a section on line :20 :10, Fig. 2.

Thesame letters of reference indicate the same parts in all the figures.

In the drawings, (t represents a shoemakers bench of ordinary construction supporting one of my improved attachmefits, which, for convenience of description, I will call a lap. The lap is composed of two side pieces, I) I), each having an otl'set, 0 at one end, which offsets are abutted together and secured by a bolt, 0, as shown in Fig. 2. An opening, d, is thus formed between the side pieces to receive the leg and upper of a boot, 0, the leg passing entirely through said opening, as shown in Fig. 1. f represents a transverse block secured to the side pieces, b b, to support the toe of the boot. The side pieces, I) b, are rigidly attached to the bench or, and the latter has an opening coinciding with the opening d.

In carrying out my invention I provide the side piece b, at its inner edge, with a supplemental piece, I), which forms one of the sides of the opening 01. To said supplemental piece are rigidly attached bolts gg, passing through the side piece I), and having thumb-nuts h h on their threaded outer ends, bearing agains the outer side of the piece b. i

t represents a screw-bolt working in a screwsocket in the piece b, and bearing against the inner side of the supplemental piece b".

It will be seen that by loosening the nuts h It the piece 0 can be pushed inwardly to decrease the wid-th of the opening d, and adapt the sides of the opening to smaller sizes of boots or shoes, while by adjusting the bolt '1'. the piece I) can be positively held at any position to which it may be adjusted. The same lap is thus enabled to serve for all sizes of boots or shoes, and the inconvenience of padding to adapt alap to a smaller size is entirely avoided. The block fis removably secured by dowel-pins 70k, attached to the block, and entering orifices lin the side pieces, b b. Several of said orifices are provided to enable the block f to be adjusted lengthwise of the pieces I) b to make the opening d shorter when it is made narrower by the adj ustment, of the piece If. 1

I claim-- 1. The improved bench attachment or lap 21,1 piece laterally and positively holding it at to this Specification, in the nresenee ol'two subany position to which it may be adjusted, as scribing witnesses, this 16th day of March, 10

set forth. 1883.

2. 1nd shoe-makers bench the combination a T X 5 with the lap having the opening d, adjustable HY piece 11 and the rigid piece I), of the adjnst- \Vitnesses able block or toe-restf, as set forth. C. F. BROWN,

In testimony whereofl have signed my name A. L. \VHlTE. 

